A Muggle Dance
by Wackysocks
Summary: Lily tries to teach the Muggle Studies class to ballroom dance and gets a very unexpected surprise. LJ oneshot


**Disclaimer- **I do not own the Harry Potter series or the characters. All are the property of J.K. Rowlings.

A Muggle Dance

I am frustrated. And surprisingly, it's not over some prank the Marauders did or some thing James Potter said. It's my Muggle Studies class. I am in the Muggle Studies classroom after dinner, trying to teach my other classmates how to do _one _ballroom dance for a small project we have to do. Everybody's here, all the desks are moved aside, and I even have the music – but I think only I have the aptitude. Everyone else keeps forgetting their steps or missing too many beats to recover from.

"Seriously, Lily, why are we bothering with this?" a Hufflepuff boy whose name I didn't remember asked.

"Because first of all, our teacher assigned this to us, and second of all, it's something that Muggles do!" I said exasperatedly. "Alright, let's try it again."

I started the music with my wand and began dancing with the same Hufflepuff boy. Within four measures of music, he had missed three steps and gotten lost. I stopped the music again. Man, did I feel like screaming! I had been doing this for three hours straight and they had hardly learned a _single thing_!

"No, no, you forgot the turn. It takes two counts, not one, and we don't make our first move left until three measures after the turn."

"Uhh, what turn?" asked my partner. I closed my eyes in exasperation. Helga Hufflepuff must have been a very kind-hearted person to say she would take every wizard or witch and teach them all.

"I think I remember," said a fifth year Gryffindor; Evin Creevey.

I stepped away from the Hufflepuff boy and took Evin's hands. I flicked my wand to restart the music (it was playing from some magical music player I bought in Hogsmeade last time I went), and began again. Evin managed to dance considerably longer than the Hufflepuff boy had, and he gotten the turn down, but as I predicted, he missed way too many steps and ended up confused.

I stopped the music, looking at the watch Mom had given me as an early birthday present. I had spent my entire evening working with them, and we hadn't even managed to get more than halfway through. Okay, so it was sort of complicated, but our professor had specifically assigned it, and I was the only one who had done it before. We hadn't even gotten to the part I called the "lean-back." The girl leans back parallel to the floor, and it is up to the guy to hold her up with one hand on her back and the other hand in hers. It's the most dramatic part of the dance, and I was already wondering if I was going to end up on the floor if my partner attempted it with me. It takes a pretty good level of trust since the guy is holding the girl up, and trust is exactly what I don't have right now. I began to say that we should go back to our common rooms, but Derek Peyton, another Hufflepuff, interrupted.

"Let me try, I can do it," he said.

"I have to patrol the corridors," I started to say.

"No, no, this won't take long and I want to try," he interrupted again. He stepped up and took my hands. Wearily, I flicked my wand and the music started. He managed for almost an entire minute, but then stepped squarely on my foot with all his weight. He isn't the lightest kid around, either. I gasped out loud from the pain just as I heard another voice.

"Goodness me, that is _not_ how you do it," James Potter said from the doorway. He looked thoroughly shocked as he strode towards us.

"May I?" without waiting for Derek's answer, he took my hands and flicked his wand at my music player. As soon as the music started, he began to dance. My foot still hurt, but I automatically began going through the steps, and was considerably stunned. He was dancing. Actually dancing. And he was doing it right. No counting the steps out loud, no stepping on my feet, no missing the turn that seemed to flabbergast that one Hufflepuff boy.

The tempo began to pick up, and right on cue, so did he. And so did I. Every move, executed perfectly. He did miss one or two steps, but so did I as we passed the halfway point that I had managed to reach with the other students. And when we did, a very strange thing happened.

All our surroundings seemed to cease to exist. The music changed. It no longer seemed slightly crackly, but sounded like a full orchestra. And _James_. I had been looking at him the whole time, but only now did he smile. His eyes were beautiful. They weren't just hazel, they seemed to be a beautiful dark hazel with flecks of lighter hazel in them. And they twinkled with joy, mischief, and laughter. I couldn't help but smile back. No longer were we dancing in a classroom with the desks pushed to one side, but on a beautiful hardwood floor in a first-class ballroom.

And then it came. As the tempo of the music all of sudden stopped on one low note, I flung my head back and leaned. His hand was there on the small of my back, guiding me as I went exactly parallel to the floor. My hair was touching the floor – I was sure of it. I heard a small gasp from the onlookers.

Very slowly, the music went into its final bars. James brought me back up close to him, and I turned, so I was facing away from him. His left hand rested on my waist while our right hands remained clasped.

I always liked how the ending was rather dramatic. As the music played its final sweet notes, I leaned into him and rested my head in his shoulder, facing away from him. His left arm went all the way around my waist. We took the final steps and ended the dance facing the other students.

The music turned off and my ballroom reverie vanished. I suddenly become extremely self-conscious about how close we were, and stepped quickly away from James.

"Goodness _gracious_, Lily," said Salira Delomann, a Ravenclaw. Her eyes were wide and she looked completely shocked. "That . . . that was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

I let out a small laugh. "Probably not the most beautiful, Salira. Now you have all seen sort of how it should be done, so-"

"Sort of?" exclaimed Derek Peyton. That guy has _got_ to stop interrupting me! "Sort of? That was just plain lovely! You two look like professionals."

I heard a chuckle from behind me and remembered James.

"Not professionals, just two people who've done it several times. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to patrol with my fellow Head."

We said good-bye and left. As soon as we were out of that corridor and into the next, I stopped.

"James Potter, where on earth did that come from?" I demanded.

He stopped walking a couple paces ahead of me and turned, smirking.

"Sirius taught me," he said, and kept walking.

Frowning, I ran to catch up, grabbed his arm, and pulled him to a stop.

"If Sirius taught you than I won the Quidditch Cup for Slytherin last year. Where did you learn to dance like that?"

When I mentioned the Quidditch Cup, he barely managed to hold in a laugh, but now he was serious and somewhat reluctant.

"My mom watched some Muggle movie with a friend of hers last summer with ballroom dancing in it. She thought it looked so fun that she wanted to do it herself. Dad works during the day, so I got drafted. Spent practically the whole summer dancing with her." He grimaced and tried to shrug it off.

I was still shocked. "So why . . . how . . ." I struggled with my words, but for some odd reason, he understood what I hadn't managed to say.

"You were late for once, so I thought you might have gotten held up. I watched you try to dance with Derek from the doorway and decided you needed a little help when he stepped on you. Oh, is your foot alright?"

I had forgotten my foot. "It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good. Let's patrol, now. I've got an early Quidditch practice tomorrow morning and I still haven't done my Charms homework." With that, he began walking again.

I followed, but I saw him in a different light. I didn't see the pompous airhead who constantly asked me out, but a boy on the brink of manhood who had a caring heart. I had been struggling, and he had stepped right in to help me.

From that day onward, however slowly it grew, I didn't just follow him with my legs, but with my heart.

thEnd

**A/N- sorta stinky ending. This just popped into my head one day and wasn't satisfied until it got out on paper. I don't really know anything about ballroom dancing, so I hope I didn't totally screw up the dance in the story. Whoever guesses the Muggle movie James' mother watched gets a gold star!**

**Wackysocks**


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